Europe’s Declaration of Independence: Strategies for a Secure Digital Workplace

Geopolitical disruptions, vulnerable supply chains, and technological dependencies have thrown the global economic framework off balance. This exposes a dangerous security gap in our digital infrastructure. Discover why the "Black Swan" is already circling Europe and how your organisation achieves a sovereign breakthrough.

This whitepaper will get you:

Deep Dive: Client-Side Encryption (CSE) in practice
Resilience Plan: How Emergency Operations work on an Open-Source basis
Innovation Booster: Leveraging Google Gemini without data leakage
Case Study: Insights from the Schwarz Group’s migration

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A man and a woman in business attire stand facing forward with tablets, surrounded by dynamic, glowing arrows that symbolize digital sovereignty and modern cloud solutions.

Digital Sovereignty is your Strategic Necessity

The data underpinning modern business processes and communication lies in the hands of a few non-European IT giants. In a world where technology is increasingly used as an instrument of geopolitical power, this dependency carries severe consequences.

Many enterprises lull themselves into a false sense of security simply because their cloud providers operate data centers within Germany. However, the physical storage location of the data is not the decisive factor; rather, it is the jurisdiction to which the provider is subject.

The US CLOUD Act obligates American providers to hand over data in critical scenarios, completely regardless of where that data is physically stored. Consequently, this US legislation effectively overrides European concepts of sovereignty.

Over 100,000 empowered users worldwide

already work securely and productively with Workspace by STACKIT

A woman walks forward with a laptop, symbolically breaking free from a glowing neon green digital chain. It is a metaphor for IT independence and breaking vendor lock-in for your company.

Freedom of Choice Without Compromise

Vendor lock-in is the top cloud risk for 70% of IT leaders. It drives up your costs and destroys your bargaining power. Recent currency changes and Microsoft’s upcoming 15% price hike in July 2026 prove that reliance on a single provider is unsustainable.

Until now, you had to choose: Maximum productivity or total control through complex, custom setups that frustrate users and compromise security.

We eliminate this dilemma. You get full digital sovereignty and transparent costs, while your teams works effortlessly and securely.

Productivity without losing control: Is that possible?

True digital sovereignty does not mean sacrificing top-tier technology. It means having the freedom of choice.

Workspace by STACKIT delivers exactly that: the full productivity of Google Workspace hosted on STACKIT’s sovereign cloud infrastructure. You keep the collaboration tools your teams expect, while ensuring complete data control and compliance.

Client-Side Encryption

Client-Side Encryption (CSE) ensures your data is unreadable to third parties. Encryption happens before data leaves your device. No external entity can access or intercept your information.

Emergency Operations

Workspace by STACKIT includes an emergency mode built on open-source architecture. If your primary infrastructure fails, your communication and workflows continue without interruption.

Secure AI Workflows

Leverage Google Gemini within an isolated, compliant environment. Your corporate data is strictly protected and is not used for public model training. Get advanced AI capabilities while maintaining data governance and privacy.

A bird's-eye architectural rendering of the Schwarz Digits data center in Lübbenau, consisting of multiple building complexes and surrounding green spaces.

Sovereignty in Action: The Schwarz Group Migration

With 604.000 employees the Schwarz Group proves that digital independence works at massive scale. By migrating to Google Workspace backed by STACKIT, the organization secured absolute data sovereignty with zero loss in productivity.

Client-Side Encryption (CSE) ensures full data control, protected from non-European legal jurisdictions. This migration serves as a strategic blueprint for enterprises aiming to control security and innovation independently.